Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system wireless communication, and more particularly to near field communication (NFC) with an information handling system supplemented by a management controller.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Many enterprises have turned to network-based “cloud” infrastructures to manage information processing requirements. A typical cloud infrastructure attempts to balance processing demands and processing resources by allocating processing tasks across generally generic server information handling systems. For example, a typical cloud infrastructure is a farm of server information handling systems that reside in a datacenter with server tasks assigned through migration of virtual machines between physical resources. In such a cloud infrastructure, the actual physical location of a virtual information handling systems is often difficult to track and generally irrelevant. Often, a datacenter will support multiple enterprises in different “virtual” cloud networking environments that run on the same physical server information handling systems.
One concern that arises with cloud networking is maintaining security for data associated with different entities that share hardware resources. Generally, the cloud infrastructure uses data structures, encryption and password protection to maintain separation of data through network accesses. These techniques also help to restrict access of data when an end user has a physical interface to server information handling systems within a datacenter, such as a datacenter technician. For instance, physical resources within a server information handling system are often managed by a baseboard management controller (BMC) that does not have access to virtual machines running on the server information handling system. Data center technicians interact with the BMC through a management network interface or a direct cable connection. The BMC allows a datacenter technician to monitor the status of physical resources and to configure the physical resources to interact with the cloud infrastructure, such as with network address and other settings.
Generally, communications with the BMC are kept secure and separate from communications through the cloud. Restricting BMC communications helps to prevent malicious accesses that could reconfigure a server information handling system or cause damage to components within the server information handling system. Typically, management network communications take place though wired interfaces, such as an Ethernet cable that connects to a local area network (LAN). In some instances, BMC communications are supported through wireless communications, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN). Generally, however, security requirements limit the ability to use WLAN communications with a server information handling system and the management network associated with a BMC. Wireless networking in a server information handling system data center creates a security risk in that unauthorized individuals might sniff wireless communications or even hack into the server through the wireless network.
One alternative to wireless networking in a server information handling system data center to communicate with a BMC is to include a near field communication (NFC) device that interfaces with the BMC. Mobile telephones that include NFC can communicate directly with the BMC through short range wireless signals that present minimal security risk since the NFC wireless signals do not carry to a distance that would extend beyond a typical datacenter secure area. However, NFC has limited bandwidth for communicating information and generally requires placement of the two communicating NFC devices in close proximity to each other. For example, a typical NFC “tag” memory space has only 3k of flash memory that is reloaded for each transmission or reception of data. As a result, an end user generally has to hold a mobile telephone in close proximity to a server information handling system NFC device for an extended time in order to communicate a meaningful amount of information.
One difficulty that arises with management of server information handling systems by NFC is that some server management data changes frequently and is thus constantly updated, such as system health and hardware logs. In order to ensure that the most recent data is available from an NFC device, this data would need frequent updates to the tag memory of the NFC device, which tends to wear internal flash memory used for tag memory. Other difficulties include ensuring that an NFC transaction has proper authorization with the BMC and ensuring that content is synchronized between NFC access to a BMC and other types of access, such as through a conventional management network interface Although NFC transactions might be arranged to provide the same access to management information at a BMC as is available through conventional management networks, NFC transaction tend to take more time than conventional network communications and sometimes involve holding a portable information handling system in an awkward position within close proximity to an NFC device that can lead to end user discomfort.